{"id":84191,"date":"2026-03-13T14:03:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T19:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=84191"},"modified":"2026-03-13T19:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T00:33:16","slug":"kansas-begins-their-dance-with-ugly-win-in-quarterfinal-against-tcu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2026\/03\/13\/kansas-begins-their-dance-with-ugly-win-in-quarterfinal-against-tcu\/","title":{"rendered":"Kansas Begins Their Dance With “Ugly Win” in Quarterfinal Against TCU"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Atticai Margrave<\/em><\/p>\n

What happens when you have a matchup between a team who doesn’t know who they are and another who plays to the level of their competition? A back and forth game of runs ending in a 78-73 Jayhawk win.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Kansas Jayhawks started their pursuit of the Big XII Tournament title with a quarterfinals matchup Thursday night against the TCU Horned Frogs who beat Oklahoma St. the night before to secure their spot against the Jayhawks.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the scouting report, Kansas had the clear advantage inside. That proved to be the case with the Jayhawks starting the game on a 9-0 run behind a quick six points inside from Bryson Tiller.<\/span><\/p>\n

This was a game of runs however, and TCU would get their punches in as well in the form of David Punch, their sophomore forward who led the team with a 24 point double-double. That would continue to be the story of this one, whoever was scoring inside at the time had the momentum. With that, TCU\u00a0 took a slight 34-31 advantage into the half.<\/span><\/p>\n

The battle inside wasn\u2019t much of a battle in the second half as BIG XII Defensive Player of the Year Flory Bidunga was sitting with foul trouble in the second half. However, in the minutes he was in the game, he made his presence felt. Nine points on perfect shooting from the field, five boards, two blocks and a +16 in the second half all while playing with those extra fouls.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, he\u2019s the best defender in the country,\u201d Coach Self said after the game. \u201cWhen he came out, we just weren\u2019t as good, bottom line.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When the lauded best defender in the country was out, the potential best player in the country had his time to shine. Darryn Peterson finished the game with 24 points to lead Kansas, 16 of which came in the second half. Additionally he played a season-high 37 minutes. Not bad for someone who can\u2019t stay healthy in the eyes of the media.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the ugly win, Kansas will advance to play the #5 Houston Cougars, who they beat in Allen Fieldhouse Feb. 23, in the semifinals next. Bill Self\u2019s message for that game, \u201cTonight was more of a \u2018We gotta win, play not to lose\u2019 type of game, tomorrow won\u2019t be like that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The final story of the night was the glass LED floor that was installed specially for this tournament. After the final game of the quarterfinals, BIG XII Commissioner Brett Yormark made the tough decision to switch the last two rounds to the hardwood.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier in the day All-BIG XII guard Christian Anderson went down with an apparent groin injury and did not return to the game. Additionally, players were sliding on the floor an extra amount during the games and it seemed like the floor got slightly more slick as the day went on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite players saying the floor was not a concern, semifinalist coaches and the commissioner made the decision to remove the innovative floor in favor of the tried and true hardwood.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a cool looking court,\u201d Self said, \u201cbut I\u2019m excited the talk tomorrow will be about the semifinals as opposed to the court.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To listen in on the Jayhawks take on Houston, tune into 90.7 FM Radio at 8:30 p.m. CST to hear Joey Bongard and Prescott Deckinger present KU Men\u2019s Basketball.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Atticai Margrave What happens when you have a matchup between a team who doesn’t know who they are and another who plays to the level of their competition? A back and forth game of runs ending in a 78-73 Jayhawk win. The Kansas Jayhawks started their pursuit of the Big XII Tournament title with a quarterfinals matchup Thursday night against the TCU Horned Frogs who beat Oklahoma St. the night before to secure their spot against the Jayhawks. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":84192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3262,610],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-on-kjhk","category-sports","category-sports-articles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_2464.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84191"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84194,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84191\/revisions\/84194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}